To Awaken Them

Overcoming the devil’s foolishness with faith in Christ

04/06/2025

John 11:1-45 Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill,  he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe.

This past Tuesday was April 1 and April Fool’s Day. I had a big April Fool’s trick played on me. I was sure our new back altar would be delivered on Friday, April 4th. And I even delivered a homily Tuesday morning about not being an April Fool myself this time. Why not? I had been fooled before thinking the altar was going to arrive at the end of January, and at the end of February, and the end of March.

But when I returned to my office after Mass, I opened an email that informed me the altar was delayed again and sitting on a train between here at Chicago. You may recall our altar was built in Italy with Carrara marble, the same hallowed stone Michaelangelo used for the sculptures like the David and the Pieta.  So on Wednesday after Mass, Philip Hindman jokingly said: “Next time order through Amazon Prime and it’ll be here the next day.”

Now the altar is scheduled to arrive next week. When it does, we will store it here on church grounds, because it will take 12 days to actually install, and that will not be possible to complete before Easter. And of course we don’t want the church to be a mess and under construction when everyone comes home for Easter.

You know, all the CEO Catholics – the folks who attend Mass on Christmas and Easter Only. We will try to complete the construction as soon as possible after Easter. But I’m not in too much of a hurry. Why not? Well, because we really have until Christmas before everyone comes back to church again!

And I mention April Fools because it is an apt analogy for the famous gospel from John 11 about raising Lazarus from the dead. What do I mean? Well, the devil tries to play the oldest April Fools trick on us saying that death is the end and there is nothing after death. Are we foolish enough to believe that, like atheists, who don’t believe in God or the afterlife?

By the way, I saw a meme where an atheist and a Christian were talking. The atheist said, “You Christians have special days for you religion, like Christmas and Easter. It’s too bad we atheists don’t have one.” The Christian smiled and said, “Sure you do. It’s April Fools Day.” My apologies to all you atheists out there.

But Jesus foils the devil’s foolishness by saying to Martha and Mary: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live.” And then Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. In other words, faith in Jesus outwits the devil’s April Fool’s trick called death because that faith restores us to life. Faith keeps us from being fools.

Have I mentioned to you before how traditional church construction was always configured as an act of faith in the Risen Jesus? Older churches like I.C. were always built facing east. In fact, right now, you are all sitting in your pews facing east. Why? Well, the sun rises in the east and so it perfectly symbolizes Jesus, the Son of God, who rose from the dead.

Indeed, even the word orientation is built on the base word “orient” which comes from the Latin word “oriens” meaning east. In other words, to face the east – to be properly oriented, which is what our faith affords – and so sitting facing the east is no small gesture of faith.

And we not only face the rising Son, we worship him like Martha and Mary did when the two sisters said, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world” and whose coming is seen in every sunrise. And incidentally this is why Christians are called an “East-er People.” Can you hear the word “east” buried in the word “Easter”?

And by the way, if you go visit a cemetery, I will give you one guess which direction all the headstones are usually facing. That’s right: they face the east or the orient. That is, if all those dead people in their graves were to sit up – and they will sit up one day, on the last, eternal East-er – they would all be facing east, properly orient-ed - toward the Rising Son coming in the glory of the morning.

In other words, even the direction someone is buried is an act of faith, like Lazarus in his tomb waiting for the coming of Christ. And at the end of days, Jesus will return gloriously on the clouds, and say to each one of us in our tombs, like Ezekiel prophesied in the first reading: “Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.” And then we, too, will be clothed with the glory of the Easter morn.

You see, both churches and cemeteries were built with one overarching purpose, namely, to elicit faith in their occupants, who are all facing the east, waiting for East-er morning. And both sets of occupants in churches and cemeteries are asleep, like Jesus said, “Lazarus is asleep.” And you’re sleeping through this homily. But what Jesus said to Lazarus he says to us: “I am going to awaken them.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!